History Main / CandlelitBath

Unfortunately, this being fiction, it tends to get interrupted, either for comedy, or for more sinister motives. If the sensual atmosphere, all goes really south, this can end up in either a rather embarrassing interruption, or even a DeadlyBath.

* In ''{{Brothers and Sisters}}'', Justin (having sustained a not entirely-clear leg injury in Iraq) is starting to take a bath. His gay brother starts lighting candles. Justin complains that his masculinity is being compromised. The candles stay, but the meditation music is changed to something more rock.

* Creator/JenniferAniston takes one in Film/HorribleBosses, while blackmailing her assistant on the phone. [[http://imgbox.com/XRoskCEU (pic).]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Mary Jane Watson does this a couple of times in ''[[FanFic/UltimateSpiderWoman Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light]]'' as a means of coping with her stress. She combines it with Music/Enya music for maximum effect.
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* ''SexAndTheCity'', where Aidan and Carrie take such a bath.
* Averted in ''Series/TheSarahConnorChronicles''. Sarah is taking a bath (with the door open instead of candlelit) in preparation for her date with Andy Good. The worst that happens is she cuts herself shaving, but it's still creepy, because it's a foreshadowing of the Terminator "birth" scene and the later [[spoiler: massacre at the hotel pool]].

* In the MeatLoaf music video "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" the girl takes a candlelit bath while still wearing her underwear.

* ''{{Foxtrot}}'': Andy takes a bubble bath, with scented candles, relaxing music... and then Quincy (Jason's iguana) pops his head out of the foam.

* ''Film/SherlockHolmes''. The trope's use would also be [[JustifiedTrope justified]], seeing that the lightbulb wasn't yet invented at the time the story takes place.

->"It's not the bath I enjoy, it's the wet, naked lady."

* In ''TheBigLebowski'', the Dude is seen smoking a joint in a mood-lit bath. Then the [[NietzscheWannabe Nihilists]] bust in and threaten him with cricket bats and an angry ferret, which the Dude mistakes for a marmot, before then [[FreudianThreat threatening to cut off his johnson]].

-->--'''Chandler''', ''Series/{{Friends}}''

[[folder:Films]]

* According to WordofGod on the DVD commentary, one draft of ''Film/{{Se7en}}'' had [[spoiler: Tracy's murder]] happen this way. There's a hint of it with a brief shot of her alone in the apartment after Mills and Somerset leave. [[/folder]]

* According to WordofGod on the DVD commentary, one draft of ''{{Se7en}}'' had [[spoiler: Tracy's murder]] happen this way. There's a hint of it with a brief shot of her alone in the apartment after Mills and Somerset leave. [[/folder]]

* ''{{Foxtrot}}'': Andy takes a bubble bath, with scented candles, relaxing music... and then Quincy (Jason's iguana) pops his head out of the foam.

This sets up sort of a romantic atmosphere that is often used for amorous scenes between lovers, or as a way to show a character finally getting a chance to be pampered for once. If all goes right expect the characters to emerge far more relaxes and saner for the experience.

* Averted in ''Series/{{TheSarahConnorChronicles}}''. Sarah is taking a bath (with the door open instead of candlelit) in preparation for her date with Andy Good. The worst that happens is she cuts herself shaving, but it's still creepy, because it's a foreshadowing of the Terminator "birth" scene and the later [[spoiler: massacre at the hotel pool]].

[[caption-width-right:350:And then the killer gets her.]]

Sometimes, a bath is just a bath. In others, it's a way to set up a character for something horrible to happen.

And then it all goes south.

Exactly what happens to the bather varies widely; Sometimes the bath is "only" annoyingly interrupted by another character or characters, but sometimes the interruption is dangerous or even fatal: the shadow of the serial killer will swish past the mirror, or the ghost will manifest, or [[ElectrifiedBathtub a piece of electronic equipment will fall into the tub]], or the earthquake will hit, or the scene will abruptly change to bright daylight, with crime scene tape around the tub and someone standing by for a QuipToBlack.

''It's only this trope if it ends in an interruption, fatal or not.''

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''A Mango Shaped Space'': Mia takes a candlelit bath while listening to music when she learns that it will enhance her experience with synesthesia.
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* Subverted on two counts in a U.K. advert for Glade Wisp Flameless Candles. See [[http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA4774&advertiser=Glade here.]]
* In the controversial ad campaign for the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' game ''Blood Money'', the [[http://sleazette.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/shocking.jpg "Shockingly Executed" ad]] features a dead woman who has been electrocuted by a toaster in a romantic candelit bath.
* Whilst not a life-or-death situation the lady in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeJ84jqLhrE this WKD advert]] ends up not enjoying her candlelit bath as her husband chooses to barge into their bathroom for a number two; with the implication he waited for that exact moment via the "Have you got a WKD side?" (WKD = wicked) slogan.

* In the film ''Film/{{Stigmata}}'', Frankie steps into her candlelit bath to relax, only to be suddenly struck with a vision of the last tortured moments of the Messiah, complete with wounds opening in her wrists.

* In ''{{Mirrors}}'' (American remake of a Korean film ''{{Into the Mirror}}''), [[spoiler: the main character's sister]] draws herself a bath.... guess who dies in one of the most painful and gruesome scenes of the film? A bath is used again but this time all the taps in the house have been turned on and the mother goes to turn the tap off...
* The "girl goes to take a shower with the psycho in the house" variation is subverted in ''HardCandy''. When the man holding the knife bursts into the bathroom and pulls back the shower curtain, he finds it empty. Then the girl runs in from behind and stunguns him into submission.
* Played with in ''[[Series/TheAddamsFamily Addams Family Values]]'', when Fester's new BlackWidow wife draws him a candlelit bath, then when Fester is in it she throws a radio plugged into the wall in. All the lights burst and the scene goes dark, then slowly a single bulb lights up, in a still living Fester's mouth. Fester just smiles.
* Played straight first in a flashback in ''{{The Princess and the Warrior}}'', when a mental ward patient throws a hair dryer into a bathtub with a nurse he's in love with. Later, a fugitive hiding from the law in the same mental institution is relaxing after a botched heist in the same bathtub, and the same patient throws a toaster at him. He instinctively catches it, and both stare in shock at each other for a moment before the fugitive leaps up with murder in his eyes.
* A character in ''CabinFever'' attempted to soothe her {{Gorn}}-battered nerves with a lantern-lit bath. As the gruesome disease in the film is water-borne, this was not a wise move.
* Played with in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'', where a silent scene of Diane taking a bath is intercut with shots of the children sleeping alone to build tension for the start of [[NotQuiteDead Round 2 with the ghosts]].
* The second ''{{Hostel}}'' movie offers a very twisted example where the woman taking a candlelit bath actually ''is'' the psycho killer. She actually seems pretty relaxed after she's done cutting her victim up, letting her bleed to death, and [[BloodBath bathing in her blood]].

* In ''{{Children of the Corn}}: Revelation'' a stripper/exotic dancer decides to take a candlelit bath... it doesn't end well.

* A rare non-horror, non-serial killer example occurs in ''A Mango Shaped Space'': Mia takes a candlelit bath while listening to music when she learns that it will enhance her experience with synesthesia.

* While it's actually a bath in the dark, otherwise happens in the episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' "Dead in the Water".
* ''CSINewYork'', where a woman who has filled a bath with rose petals and water ends up electrocuting herself.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}''
** There was an episode where a woman was drowned in a bathtub by her employer, just because she was causing him to lose by messing up his Feng Shui. Note that both she and her employer had apparently enjoyed such baths on many previous occasions without incident.
** Averted in another episode where the bathtime preparations do lead to a bloody corpse, [[spoiler:but all the damage was self-inflicted]].

* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent,''
** Varied in an episode where a beautiful woman has drawn a perfumed, candlelit bath, not just for relaxation but to entertain her married lover. They have a quarrel, she threatens to tell his wife about their relationship, and he drowns her in the bath.
** Another episode dealt with a woman whose son was accused of pushing a heater into her bath, and though the water was cold, there were candles and the tub was full. She, of course, is electrocuted, and while they try to decipher her murder they find out that [[spoiler:she knocked the heater into the bathtub herself.]]
* ''Series/{{Friends}}''
** Subverted in one episode where Chandler and Monica, who at the time are secretly dating, are taking such a bath, when Joey pops in. Monica hides under the bath water. Joey asks if he wants food. He refuses, then Monica emerges and informs Chandler that she could eat something. Chandler calls Joey back and makes his orders.
** [[PlayedForLaughs Comically]] {{Double Subver|sion}}ted when Chandler accidentally orders Monica Pepsi instead of Diet Pepsi and [[GroinAttack gets pinched underwater]]

* Both subverted and played straight in ''Series/TheXFiles'' on several occasions. Scully's penchant for taking these led to a straight use in "Squeeze", a subversion in "Chinga" (the music builds, we're sure something creepy's going to happen, the phone rings and... it's Mulder, he's bored), and an ''extremely'' creepy straight use in "Irresistable" ("Is your hair color-treated?")...and a hilarious one in "Hollywood A.D.".

* Played with in an episode of the 1994 revival of ''BurkesLaw'', entitled "Who Killed the Starlet?" A woman is relaxing in a candlelit bath while listening to some music. A killer sneaks in and drops her boombox into the bathtub, killing her. It turns out that the killer and girl are merely actors on a movie set, and they're filming a murder scene. Then it turns out the boombox was plugged into a live outlet by an unknown party, and the actress in the bathtub is really dead.
* Another non-horror version in ''SexAndTheCity'', where Aidan and Carrie take such a bath.
* A variation of this trope was put into historical context in ''DesperateRomantics''. Elizabeth Siddal is posing for Millais as Ophelia in a tub of cold water heated by candles. She almost drowns when the candles go out, the water cools down and she loses consciousness. Her parents are understandably not too happy.

* A nonlethal variant: an ''WebComic/OzyAndMillie'' strip features Millie's mother trying one of these. The last panel? Millie asking about something she'd forgotten, but it's not one of the poisonous kinds. Ms Mudd wonders if she brought ''enough'' wine.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Jean-Paul Marat could be taken as [[TruthInTelevision a real-life example]]; [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Death_of_Marat_by_David.jpg he was stabbed while taking an herbal bath]]. Granted, it was because he had a skin disease and not because he was trying to relax, but the principle's the same.
* The trope of the candlelit bath has been cited by fire departments as one modern cause of fatal house fires, especially in homes where the bathroom walls aren't tiled. Lighting a bunch of candles and sticking them next to a painted wall, then falling asleep...how relaxing!
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